I greatly appreciate the few reviews of the last chapter! Hopefully readers are still finding this story interesting. Getting closer to the end...

Shepard could barely hear the whispers in her head now. It was likely they were moving further away from the source, which was strange since the Reapers were everywhere. Her thoughts were interrupted by the warm sensation of a caress against her face. She parted her dry lips to speak but quickly found that it was going to take a bit more effort than she had built up. She tried again, uttering the one name that lingered on her tongue and in her subconscious. "Saren."

No response, only silence. However, she could feel breath quicken as it fanned against her face. She pried open her dry, sleep-adhered eyelids, her enhanced vision quickly adjusting to the blaring lights above and the face that stared down at her with a mix of worry and agitation.

"Adam…" she croaked through a hoarse voice.

"This… Saren, is he the turian?" he asked, his tone flat.

"Yes," she responded simply. This was not something she wanted to discuss at the moment and had no intention of providing more than the bare minimum. She was in a dangerous situation and no ideal way to get out of it, so she needed to tread carefully.

"I see…" He trailed off thoughtfully. His features softened as his mind turned over some other thoughts. "Is it true what Nick says; that you're a human-machine hybrid?"

She stared at him hard, trying to read him more carefully before meeting his question with an answer.

"You still feel human," he continued before she could respond. "But there's a strange artificial glow beneath your skin. It's clearly visible in your eyes. They use to be grey…" He stopped himself as memories of the past came flooding back unwillingly.

"I'm still me, if that's what you're wondering," she stated, finally finding her voice enough to form a full sentence.

"Are you?" he asked skeptically. "We've all changed, Jane. Including you." He sighed. "Nick – the surgeon you met earlier," he added, responding to her questioning stare. "He seems to think that The Illusive Man is wrong; that he shouldn't remove the chip."

Her eyes widened with his proclamation, despite doing her best to hide her surprise. "And what do you think?"

"I'm inclined to agree. I may be biased. The doc did save my life once." He paused to meet her gaze. "Though, that may not be the only reason I'm biased…"

Tilting her head, she peered at him curiously. "What happened to you after Akuze?"

"Well, I spent several weeks in intensive care. Nick patched me up." He lifted the left corner of his shirt to display a sizable, disfiguring scar on his torso, likely caused by the thresher maw's acidic spit. "Acid. Damn stuff ate away at some of my internal organs. Doc replaced them with some pretty hefty implants."

"Synthetic?" she surmised with a raised brow.

"Only the best," he said with a small smile. "Fixed me up with some nifty cybernetics too."

"Seems we're not so different after all."

He shook his head in disagreement. "Cerberus found me, told me no one else in the platoon lived and that the Alliance abandoned the search for survivors, I was devastated. Then word of your survival got around… Revered as the sole survivor. I was happy you were alive, but I was also angry. The life I had worked for was gone, including you. You wouldn't have given up as I had."

"Don't be so sure," she muttered softly, remembering when she had been brought back by Cerberus. She quickly shook the thought and continued, "You could have come back."

Adam shrugged dismissively and uttered a short laugh. "You saw firsthand how people treat you when you've been with Cerberus. Nah, I was better off dead. Didn't mean I never thought about contacting you…" he cast his gaze downward in shame. "I did try once, after Cerberus rebuilt you, but my communication was blocked. After that I never tried again."

"Adam, I'm sorry. If I would have known you were still alive…"

He shrugged again. "No use dwelling on the past, Jane, you know that. Everything seems to happen for a reason. Maybe now this gives me a chance to set things straight."

"What do you mean?" Without answering he dipped his hand to his side to pull something from his pocket. With one movement of his thumb a blade shot from the shaft. Her heart raced at the sight of edged metal gleaming in the intense light. As overwhelming fear and helplessness crept over her, instinct took over and she yanked hard at her bindings, but to no avail. "Adam, what are you doing?"

"Relax," he soothed, moving the blade ever closer. "Don't struggle."

If he got close enough she may be able to head butt him, but what would that buy her? He may lash out. Everything else was tied down. There was no escape. Perhaps she could entice him with words. Maybe… She froze when he grabbed her wrist in his hand and sliced at the bindings. She sat stunned as he did the same with the other wrist, then her torso, and finally her legs.

"Why?" she asked, confusion written all over her face.

He smiled. It was the same charming smile she'd remembered from the corps. "I guess neither of us has really changed after all."

They both turned at the sudden, unsettling sound of the door. The doctor she recognized form before sprinted inside the room, darting for the computer that sat on the other side of the room.

"Nick, what's wrong?" Adam asked as he watched the man type anxiously at the keyboard.

"I need to make sure I back up this data in case anything happens. If we lose her I don't want to have to start from scratch."

"Hey," Adam said evenly, grasping the doctor's attention for a brief moment. "We're not going to lose her."

Focusing back on his computer screen the doctor muttered something she couldn't even begin to make out.

"So what's going on?" she asked, her question mainly aimed towards Adam since Dr. Oninger seemed to have no intention of responding.

"We're going to get you to a shuttle."

"Won't they track it?"

He gave her a mischievous wink. "Not the one we're taking. Just have to get your there before—" A large tremor interrupted him.

"Looks like it already started," the doctor said.

"What started?" she demanded, grabbing Adam's arm.

"Not long after we arrived in the Perseus Veil we found that we weren't the only ones here."

"Who else?"

This time Nick finally looked up from his monitor to speak. "The Quarians. We were going to sneak by, thinking they'd be too involved with their own conflict with the Geth. Well… We were wrong."

"The Quarians fighting alongside the Geth… Now that's what I call strange," Adam muttered under his breath.

Shepard smiled inwardly. If they were indeed fighting together it could only mean that Tali and Legion had united the two races in one way or another. "I don't think it's so strange," she said finally.

"You wouldn't," Adam told her, a knowing grin on his lips.

If Tali and Legion were out there, they could attempt to get this shuttle to the Quarian fleet. That was, if they didn't get blown up in the process. She'd just have to reach them through the shuttle's comm system… And hope they listen.

Another rumble sent some instruments and medication crashing to the floor. "Okay I got the data. We'd better go." The doctor looked at her questionably. "Can you stand?"

"Yeah," Shepard replied, sliding off the table. She tried to ignore the soft but sturdy touch of Adam's hands as he helped her up. While she couldn't successfully ignore the contact, she was able to meet his tender gaze with a dismissive glance. Props for that, she thought.

As soon as they exited the medical center they were quickly greeted by two helmeted figures blocking their path. "Doctor," the one on the left said, gripping his firearm tightly. "Where are you taking the prisoner?"

"The Illusive Man ordered us to escort her to the escape pods," Nick responded calmly.

Both faceless guards glanced at one another questionably. It would seem they didn't get the memo. "We'll need to confirm with command," the right said finally. As he moved to press the comm button on his helmet, Adam reacted quickly, wrenching the rifle from his single hand and knocking him over the head with the butt. The blow was hard enough to crack the man's helmet and he quickly fell to the floor. Before the other guard could react, the good doctor jabbed his fist forward. The guard sucked in a hitched breath and slumped. It wasn't until he removed his hand and let the body fall, that Shepard realized he'd been holding a blade.

"Nice work, Doc," she said with a lopsided smirk.

"You may leave the corps, but the corps never leaves you."

She nodded in agreement. "Isn't that the truth."

Adam frowned down at the rifle he'd been holding, his eyes lingering on the crack trailing up the stock. "They don't make these things the way they use to," he muttered before tossing it to the floor and grabbing for the one off the other guard's body. His hand bumped against another and he glanced up to find Shepard's stern eyes glowing from within.

"I don't like being unarmed," she said, warning lining her voice.

"I don't either," Adam replied evenly.

"I'll make the decision easy for both of you," Nick interrupted, relieving the dead man's hands of the disputed weapon.

Shepard was about to object when Adam signaled her to keep quiet. Despite their seemingly close friendship, it was clear Adam both feared and respected Nick Oninger. In fleeting curiosity, she wondered why. "So I take it The Illusive Man didn't give the order to take me to the pods?"

A small, almost invisible smile touched the doctor's lips as he regarded her question. "Commander, you should have been dead hours ago."

As they proceeded on towards the shuttle bay, they hadn't received any other confrontations regarding where doctor and operative were escorting the prisoner. They were barely given a second glance as technicians frantically worked on repairs, the few loyal medical staff tended to the injured, and the rest were in route to the escape pods. The dreadnaught was huge, but Nick and Adam seemed to know all the shortcuts. When they finally arrived at the shuttle bay, the dreadnaught was in rough shape.

"Keep your filter on until we get into the shuttle," Nick told them as he inputted the code into the door.

No shit, she thought, but nodded instead. Halfway to their destination a hole had been blasted through the hull of the ship and the oxygen had been quickly seeping out. Good thing the doctor always seemed to be prepared. The moment the door opened to reveal the small, isolated hangar, she was relieved. One step closer to freedom… and Saren.

*Identify* came a voice from the Normandy's comm system.

"This is the Normandy," Joker replied.

*State your business in the Veil.*

"We're here to track down a Cerberus dreadnaught that would have recently entered this system," he replied, making an obscene face at the voice on the other side of the link.

*Cerberus?* The voice paused momentarily before continuing. *That dreadnaught has been destroyed.*

"Destroyed?!" Joker slammed his hand down on the controls angrily, his facial expression fading from ridiculous to agitated in less than a second. If that ship was destroyed, the commander would have been blown up along with it… "Were there any survivors?"

Silence.

"My commander was being held captive on that ship!" Joker shouted into the link. "Answer me you piece of shi—"

*Joker?* A different voice; this one very familiar.

"Tali?"

*Joker! I'm so glad it's you! We have Shepard aboard our flagship. I'm sending over the coordinates and clearing you to dock.*

Joker sighed with relief, relaxing back in his chair. "How's the commander? Is she okay?"

*She's fine.*

Doubly good to hear. Especially since now he wouldn't have to tell a very irate turian that his woman was now mystery meat. He shuddered and inwardly scolded himself. Okay, Joker, that was bad even coming from you. Shaking the thought from his head, Joker gave a thoughtful sideways glance at the figure seated in the co-pilot's chair. Reflective curves caused his gaze to linger a bit longer than he intended. Boy, was Shepard in for a surprise!